I recently took up several scarf projects.
Three scarves of the same pattern, same needle size, and in the same color but different yarn (so not *really* the same color, but still...).
I am done with one, half way on the other and have already wound the skeins for the third.
This project, which has the side benefit of showing off how different yarns handle cables, is so that I can having something to work on at work. The shawl I am working on has reached a point in the pattern that interruptions by customers could have a dangerous outcome. Not that I have been knitting the shawl at home either. I figure I just need a little break before tackling the next section which has nubs (a new technique for me).
During all of this, I decided I should make a scarf for an old friend. You know, a light something to knit when watching TV, because the shawl needs no distractions, you see. So I asked him what his favorite color was. I picked a super simple pattern that had a great texture and would be just fine for a guy. Then I settled on a yarn from my stash, because knitting from stash is very important and makes any project justifiable.
It is a very nice yarn. Soft and thick with layers of color qualities! Absolutely gorgeous! I had two skeins in the requested blue, two in brick red and two in bright red. In two days I knit up the scarf. It is perfect. The pattern, with one adjustment for knitting without turning, came out even better than I could have hoped for in this fluffy yarn. The scarf has already received acclaim for those who have come in contact with it. This scarf is everything one could love about a non-lace scarf.
Well, almost everything. The one thing it is not, is mine.
I have already promised it out. It ships this weekend. Soon it will travel 1500 miles away and hopefully be appreciated and not regifted. (I will hunt him down and do serious damage to him if this scarf ends up in the possession of another.)
So now I have four skeins of this yarn in colors I dare not wear. They can not fix this problem.
There is a fix though. A very simple one. One that even comes with a bonus of the words "SALE"......
So yeah. Yarn diet? That was so last year.... right?
Showing posts with label shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shopping. Show all posts
Friday, September 30, 2011
Saturday, November 29, 2008
New to the Stash
Well, today I went and bought more yarn.Why, you might ask?
Is it not enough that I have yarn stacked around me, in boxes, in dresser drawers and in bags in the closet?
Apparently not.
Thought to be fair, I had to go get yarn today because I needed to secure my gift for the gift swap at the Christmas party Yarn For Breakfast is having. Pictures of yarn for the swap may or may not be included in this post. Wouldn't want to give it away, now would I?
Unfortunately the store I went to was having a sale of half off on half of the store. This meant that I could buy a yarn that was normally $43 for only $21.50.
How was I to resist? I mean, we are talking 2480 yards of fingering weight (though everyone says it is lace weight) yarn for the lowest price one may ever find on such a product!
Admittedly, the sock yarn was not really needed, though the price was very nice. The silk I needed since I already have one skein. All in all, I think I did rather well at keeping my purchases to a minimum.
Edited to Add: Here's this for fate. The skein of Shibui Silk Cloud I got is the EXACT dye lot match to the one I already had! None of the skeins that I had to choose from when I was at the store were of matching dye lots and I figured I won't be able to guess which one matched the one at home. I did. I got it right. :-D
A few weeks prior, I had purchased some Allure. It was a required purchase for a specific project. The baby yarn was just to try it out and the glow in the dark yarn was really curiosity. I am not sure why I grabbed two skeins of it.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Tying up the ends, the conclusion of my trip
On Wednesday, September 3rd, I finally got my chance to visit The Yarnery.
Remember in the last post I said it came highly recommended?
I can easily understand why.
Admittedly I did not get a chance to visit any of the other stores in the Twin Cities, but I figure there will just have to be another trip in the future. St. Paul was lovely and the people were wonderful.
My traveling companions were trying not to visibly drag their feet when we got to The Yarnery, but were failing miserably at hiding their reluctance. I found the solution before started looking for parking. Right across the street is a bar that Bill used to visit often when he lived in St. Paul. He even told us the story about how a drawing of him ended up on the walls.
I directed the boys to stay at the bar while I merrily jaunted across the street for fiber. They were thrilled!
I was as well.
Now, don't get me wrong. They are good boys and they try to be supportive of my yarn addiction, but having them in a yarn shop without the promise of receiving a custom made item is uncomfortable. They stand around and try to fake smiles. They know nothing of yarn and seem uninterested in learning much of anything on the subject. It was decided that, in the event of global economic collapse, I would be in charge of spinning and knitting all sorts of things for the home and for trade. Thus, they don't have to burden themselves with the information.
Now, I admit, I failed to take a single picture of the store. I am not sure how I would have remembered to, since the first thing to be seen walking into the store was a wall of lace weight yarn.
Seriously, they put a whole wall of it opposite the front door. Your eyes are forced to rest upon gorgeous skeins of skinny yarn in all colors and textures immediately.
I probably stood with the door and my mouth open, drooling slightly, for more than five minutes.
Then I was rescued by a most wonderful lady, who will hopefully forgive me for forgetting her name. I explained, while letting my eyes wander briefly from the lace to other yarns, that I was from out of state and how I came to hear about the store.
We chatted a bit and she provided me with a tour of the marvelous store, explaining how each section was arranged by yarn weight. She saved the best for last, that being the wall of yarn on sale.
Before long I had an arm load of yarn. I did try to be careful, truly. After all, my stash at home had already surpassed a hundred different yarns, some of which I do not even know what they are.
I picked two skeins from the lace weight wall, Malabrigo Lace in two colors and from the sale wall I got two skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk (at an absolute steal of a price) and two skeins of Rowan Lurex Shimmer (I could not resist the shiny purple yarn at such a great price).
I made my purchases and, floating on a fiber high, drifted back across the street to check on the boys who were left at the bar.
They were smiling and having a great time even though the pictures had been taken down from the walls and Bill was unable to show us the one of him.
We had reservations for dinner down the road and so had to head out fairly quickly. I took a moment to show off the yarn, even they can appreciate silk and shiny things, and mentioned how very little all that yarn and a large circular knitting needle cost.
Piller looked at Bill and said he was wrong.
Wrong about what, I asked.
He said that he had been telling Bill it was the best yarn shopping trip ever since he was able to spend it in a bar but, now that he knew how much I had spent, he no longer thought that.
I withheld from pointing out how many times he has spent more that I had on comic books, figuring it would only confuse the issue.
Silly boys.
----
There is one last thing to mention about my trip, and that would be what I was knitting while on vacation.
You didn't believe that I went a whole week without moving yarn across needles, did you?
Before we left I had started on the My Favorite Shawl pattern, which I had picked up at the local yarn shop Ewe Knit Kits & Yarn. It is a fairly easy pattern that involves knitting a shawl sideways.
The pattern calls for 500 yards of DK or Worsted weight yarn. I used The Purled Llama's Sol, a worsted weight yarn with rather bright colors of orange and green. The yarn puts me to mind of crayons and kid drawings, which is a bit more colorful than most of my yarn. I love color, but have rarely knit with anything very bright. This was my attempt to get past that.
The yarn is, accordingly, 550 yards.
Which should be more than enough for the shawl.
While we were in St. Paul, I would knit more rows on it every morning. By the time we were to pack for our drive back, I had reached the halfway point. This is decided by measuring the shawl from the middle of your back and then draped forward to verify the desired length has been reached.
I knew we had a longer drive back that we did up, because we were not going to take the toll roads. So I took my knitting with me into the car and knitted nearly non-stop, only pausing when there was no sunlight to see by. For some crazy reason, it took almost twice as long to get back as the trip up. I had two whole days to knit. I reached the end at dusk the second day.
That end was not the finish of the shawl, but rather the end of the yarn.
This yarn is not the kind that has dye lot numbers. Each hank is individually dyed and therefore unmatchable to any other skein. Add to that the purchase time was many months back, so there would certainly be no match, I could not finish the shawl through adding on yarn.
Nor was I going to take some random other yarn (which my stash is mostly darker or more muted colors) and finish it that way. Nope, wouldn't work.
The boys tried all these suggestions and more. I think they were worried about being trapped in a car with a disgruntled knitter who had a cache of pointy sticks at her feet. One suggestion was to cast off there and call it an artistic interpretation.
It was not a bad idea, but I wanted a warm shawl. A blanky that I could get away with carrying around in public. I was more than twenty rows from the end. It would have looked like it had been amputated.
With a deep breath I put the project aside.
No tears, no screaming. I even managed to minimize the twitching.
A master of calm, that is me.
When I got home, I frogged the whole thing back.
Marked the midway point, in case I decided to try again.
And rewound it into a ball.
It will now sit in a basket and think about what it wants to be. Until it has a clear answer, that yarn will not be touched. It is officially grounded until further notice.
I know, it was probably my error. I should have marked the middle of the skein before I started knitting it. I probably made it too big, or perhaps my needles should have been another size up from what I was using.
But if you just push such arguments aside, if only for a moment, then we come to the real point.
My vacation knitting project failed. Really, all of my stitches were perfect and well developed.
I have had many successes, that was the first project to not end well at all. I have removed the evidence of this, and now all that remains of it is this post which I will bravely place on the internet.
Eventually the yarn will be something and it will work out better. In the meantime, I shall focus on other things. It is such a minor thing really.
Thus I will not document the things I said to the yarn as I was ripping out all those stitches. Most of them weren't fit for human consumption anyway.
This ends my vacation posts.
Coming soon: "Quick knits for cold ankles"
Or "Projects that do as they are told"
Remember in the last post I said it came highly recommended?
I can easily understand why.
Admittedly I did not get a chance to visit any of the other stores in the Twin Cities, but I figure there will just have to be another trip in the future. St. Paul was lovely and the people were wonderful.
My traveling companions were trying not to visibly drag their feet when we got to The Yarnery, but were failing miserably at hiding their reluctance. I found the solution before started looking for parking. Right across the street is a bar that Bill used to visit often when he lived in St. Paul. He even told us the story about how a drawing of him ended up on the walls.
I directed the boys to stay at the bar while I merrily jaunted across the street for fiber. They were thrilled!
I was as well.
Now, don't get me wrong. They are good boys and they try to be supportive of my yarn addiction, but having them in a yarn shop without the promise of receiving a custom made item is uncomfortable. They stand around and try to fake smiles. They know nothing of yarn and seem uninterested in learning much of anything on the subject. It was decided that, in the event of global economic collapse, I would be in charge of spinning and knitting all sorts of things for the home and for trade. Thus, they don't have to burden themselves with the information.
Now, I admit, I failed to take a single picture of the store. I am not sure how I would have remembered to, since the first thing to be seen walking into the store was a wall of lace weight yarn.
Seriously, they put a whole wall of it opposite the front door. Your eyes are forced to rest upon gorgeous skeins of skinny yarn in all colors and textures immediately.
I probably stood with the door and my mouth open, drooling slightly, for more than five minutes.
Then I was rescued by a most wonderful lady, who will hopefully forgive me for forgetting her name. I explained, while letting my eyes wander briefly from the lace to other yarns, that I was from out of state and how I came to hear about the store.
We chatted a bit and she provided me with a tour of the marvelous store, explaining how each section was arranged by yarn weight. She saved the best for last, that being the wall of yarn on sale.
Before long I had an arm load of yarn. I did try to be careful, truly. After all, my stash at home had already surpassed a hundred different yarns, some of which I do not even know what they are.
I picked two skeins from the lace weight wall, Malabrigo Lace in two colors and from the sale wall I got two skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk (at an absolute steal of a price) and two skeins of Rowan Lurex Shimmer (I could not resist the shiny purple yarn at such a great price).
I made my purchases and, floating on a fiber high, drifted back across the street to check on the boys who were left at the bar.
They were smiling and having a great time even though the pictures had been taken down from the walls and Bill was unable to show us the one of him.
We had reservations for dinner down the road and so had to head out fairly quickly. I took a moment to show off the yarn, even they can appreciate silk and shiny things, and mentioned how very little all that yarn and a large circular knitting needle cost.
Piller looked at Bill and said he was wrong.
Wrong about what, I asked.
He said that he had been telling Bill it was the best yarn shopping trip ever since he was able to spend it in a bar but, now that he knew how much I had spent, he no longer thought that.
I withheld from pointing out how many times he has spent more that I had on comic books, figuring it would only confuse the issue.
Silly boys.
----
There is one last thing to mention about my trip, and that would be what I was knitting while on vacation.
You didn't believe that I went a whole week without moving yarn across needles, did you?
Before we left I had started on the My Favorite Shawl pattern, which I had picked up at the local yarn shop Ewe Knit Kits & Yarn. It is a fairly easy pattern that involves knitting a shawl sideways.
The pattern calls for 500 yards of DK or Worsted weight yarn. I used The Purled Llama's Sol, a worsted weight yarn with rather bright colors of orange and green. The yarn puts me to mind of crayons and kid drawings, which is a bit more colorful than most of my yarn. I love color, but have rarely knit with anything very bright. This was my attempt to get past that.
The yarn is, accordingly, 550 yards.
Which should be more than enough for the shawl.
While we were in St. Paul, I would knit more rows on it every morning. By the time we were to pack for our drive back, I had reached the halfway point. This is decided by measuring the shawl from the middle of your back and then draped forward to verify the desired length has been reached.
I knew we had a longer drive back that we did up, because we were not going to take the toll roads. So I took my knitting with me into the car and knitted nearly non-stop, only pausing when there was no sunlight to see by. For some crazy reason, it took almost twice as long to get back as the trip up. I had two whole days to knit. I reached the end at dusk the second day.
That end was not the finish of the shawl, but rather the end of the yarn.
This yarn is not the kind that has dye lot numbers. Each hank is individually dyed and therefore unmatchable to any other skein. Add to that the purchase time was many months back, so there would certainly be no match, I could not finish the shawl through adding on yarn.
Nor was I going to take some random other yarn (which my stash is mostly darker or more muted colors) and finish it that way. Nope, wouldn't work.
The boys tried all these suggestions and more. I think they were worried about being trapped in a car with a disgruntled knitter who had a cache of pointy sticks at her feet. One suggestion was to cast off there and call it an artistic interpretation.
It was not a bad idea, but I wanted a warm shawl. A blanky that I could get away with carrying around in public. I was more than twenty rows from the end. It would have looked like it had been amputated.
With a deep breath I put the project aside.
No tears, no screaming. I even managed to minimize the twitching.
A master of calm, that is me.
When I got home, I frogged the whole thing back.
Marked the midway point, in case I decided to try again.
And rewound it into a ball.
It will now sit in a basket and think about what it wants to be. Until it has a clear answer, that yarn will not be touched. It is officially grounded until further notice.
I know, it was probably my error. I should have marked the middle of the skein before I started knitting it. I probably made it too big, or perhaps my needles should have been another size up from what I was using.
But if you just push such arguments aside, if only for a moment, then we come to the real point.
My vacation knitting project failed. Really, all of my stitches were perfect and well developed.
I have had many successes, that was the first project to not end well at all. I have removed the evidence of this, and now all that remains of it is this post which I will bravely place on the internet.
Eventually the yarn will be something and it will work out better. In the meantime, I shall focus on other things. It is such a minor thing really.
Thus I will not document the things I said to the yarn as I was ripping out all those stitches. Most of them weren't fit for human consumption anyway.
This ends my vacation posts.
Coming soon: "Quick knits for cold ankles"
Or "Projects that do as they are told"
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
More Yarn related goodness from my trip
On the morning of my second day in St. Paul, I did some quick searching online. I had traded messages with Franklin Habit before I left. He suggested I visit The Yarnery while I was in town. I made it clear to my traveling companions that there would be yarn shopping during our stay and they accepted this the same way an international traveler accepts having to go through customs.
My online searching turned up a limited time yarn shop that would easily be on our way to other destinations. Thus, when Monday rolled around and we were off to see the RNC hubbub, I casually exclaimed, "Oh, look! A random yarn shop!"
At least I think it was casual. I don't think my companions bought it for a second.
We were quickly greeted by very friendly staff and I even got a guided tour!
A guided tour was needed, as this event was a two week special hosting of five different yarn stores in one.
Five.
In one.
There was much yarn!
I went room to room fondling yarns and testing the patience of my friends. In order to prevent them from reaching full grumbling stage, I quickly turned the tables on them. Doing what any smart knitter would do in this situation.
I turned to Piller and said, "Which sock yarn do you want your socks made out of?"
"Huh?"
"You said you wanted hand knit socks, so pick a yarn."
"I don't know which yarn is sock yarn."
I encouraged him to follow and pointed to a floor to ceiling collection of appropriate fibers.
"Pick one."
This bought me more time and gave me an excuse to walk away with a new skein. He chose the ONline Supersocke 100 Sierra Color 77 in a neat purple-type color. Shown here divided and balled.
I withheld casting on for this sock until I was safely back in Norfolk with my expert knitting friends from Yarn for Breakfast to help guide me. I have made precisely one sock before. Not a pair, just one single sock.
It was very nice not counting that the rib pattern failed and half of it knitted inside out due to a confusion on turning the heel. The reason it is a single sock was because a) it wasn't proper sock yarn to begin with and b) there was not enough yarn to do a second sock.
This time I am doing a toe-up with my own cast-on, no particular pattern and I will be doing an afterthought heel, which will allow me to not mistakenly flip my knitting around half way through.
My gauge is currently showing as 10sts/inch. Piller has large male feet.
This may take a while.
There is more knitting goodness from my trip to come, but you will just have to tune in next time for it.
My online searching turned up a limited time yarn shop that would easily be on our way to other destinations. Thus, when Monday rolled around and we were off to see the RNC hubbub, I casually exclaimed, "Oh, look! A random yarn shop!"
At least I think it was casual. I don't think my companions bought it for a second.
We were quickly greeted by very friendly staff and I even got a guided tour!A guided tour was needed, as this event was a two week special hosting of five different yarn stores in one.
Five.
In one.
There was much yarn!
I went room to room fondling yarns and testing the patience of my friends. In order to prevent them from reaching full grumbling stage, I quickly turned the tables on them. Doing what any smart knitter would do in this situation.
I turned to Piller and said, "Which sock yarn do you want your socks made out of?"
"Huh?"
"You said you wanted hand knit socks, so pick a yarn."
"I don't know which yarn is sock yarn."
I encouraged him to follow and pointed to a floor to ceiling collection of appropriate fibers.
"Pick one."
This bought me more time and gave me an excuse to walk away with a new skein. He chose the ONline Supersocke 100 Sierra Color 77 in a neat purple-type color. Shown here divided and balled.I withheld casting on for this sock until I was safely back in Norfolk with my expert knitting friends from Yarn for Breakfast to help guide me. I have made precisely one sock before. Not a pair, just one single sock.
It was very nice not counting that the rib pattern failed and half of it knitted inside out due to a confusion on turning the heel. The reason it is a single sock was because a) it wasn't proper sock yarn to begin with and b) there was not enough yarn to do a second sock.
This time I am doing a toe-up with my own cast-on, no particular pattern and I will be doing an afterthought heel, which will allow me to not mistakenly flip my knitting around half way through.
My gauge is currently showing as 10sts/inch. Piller has large male feet.
This may take a while.
There is more knitting goodness from my trip to come, but you will just have to tune in next time for it.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Stash update
Many stores have sales on Memorial Day.
Many yarn stores have sales too.
But one of our local yarn stores, Ewe Knit Kits and Yarn specifically, had a stash busting sale.
It's over now and I report this having been a witness and participant.
All the yarns in a dedicated and surprisingly large section were available for $40-a-bag.
Which is to say they gave each person a very very roomy plastic bag, which could be stretched for even more room, and anything the customer put in that bag or have barely hanging in the bag (from that section only) could be purchased at a flat rate of $40.
This event was two days only and I honestly missed the first day. While I wonder about what I missed, I do not feel regret as I did do quite well.
When I arrived I had with me a friend who had finally decided she wanted to learn to knit. I explained the sale to her as we got our bags. She started off shyly while I pounded yarn in my bag to make room for more.
Eventually one of the store employees said she wasn't doing it right and went to her aid by dumping the yarn out on to the floor. Then the lady stretched the bag and started putting the small skeins in first, jamming them down and asking for more then finishing off with large 300+ yard skeins of worsted weight Llama.
In the end I scored $321 of yarn for only $40.
My friend managed an amazing $394 of yarn for the same price.
My stash is a happy stash. I will have to figure out how to store skeins on the ceiling, but I am sure I will figure it out.
After that, we did regular shopping. We found her an easy lace shawl pattern and the needles for knitting it up. I got myself a yarn spinning kit, complete with drop spindle, (which I could afford thanks to all that savings) and a $0.99 skien of yarn that had not been snatched up yet from the bargain basket.
There was a table in the back of the store with cookies, cake and candy were we snagged some seats and I taught my friend to knit. She was not the first person I have taught knitting to, but she is my first dedicated pupil. Within short order she was working lace, reading charts and learning to adjust patterns.
I am lucky to find such a gifted student. One of the other store employees said I should teach a class for them. I have to admit being tempted by that idea.
While we were knitting, others were shopping and we got to see the record deal of the whole two day sale. One lady, bag stuffed with some very very nice yarns, scored over $600 worth of yarn for forty bucks.
Wow.
Admittedly all of us felt a little bad, as if we were taking advantage of the deal, but I don't think there is a single one who actually regrets our purchases.
And why should we? The employees were encouraged by the store owner to help us stuff our bags as much as we could. If nothing else, they have more room for new yarn and an amazing amount of word of mouth advertising for their store. Oh, and my friend lives close to that store, so she will be going there for her supplies.
Before we left, I told them they should do this sale again but with a couple of differences. I suggested smaller, large-envelope style bags and the sale be $60 or $80 for selected books, magazines and patterns. I do hope they will do this. My stash is set, but my library could use some padding out.
For now, I have my hands full photographing my new yarn and posting in my Ravelry stash.
I got a lot of yarn.
Many yarn stores have sales too.
But one of our local yarn stores, Ewe Knit Kits and Yarn specifically, had a stash busting sale.
It's over now and I report this having been a witness and participant.
All the yarns in a dedicated and surprisingly large section were available for $40-a-bag.
Which is to say they gave each person a very very roomy plastic bag, which could be stretched for even more room, and anything the customer put in that bag or have barely hanging in the bag (from that section only) could be purchased at a flat rate of $40.
This event was two days only and I honestly missed the first day. While I wonder about what I missed, I do not feel regret as I did do quite well.
When I arrived I had with me a friend who had finally decided she wanted to learn to knit. I explained the sale to her as we got our bags. She started off shyly while I pounded yarn in my bag to make room for more.
Eventually one of the store employees said she wasn't doing it right and went to her aid by dumping the yarn out on to the floor. Then the lady stretched the bag and started putting the small skeins in first, jamming them down and asking for more then finishing off with large 300+ yard skeins of worsted weight Llama.
In the end I scored $321 of yarn for only $40.
My friend managed an amazing $394 of yarn for the same price.
My stash is a happy stash. I will have to figure out how to store skeins on the ceiling, but I am sure I will figure it out.
After that, we did regular shopping. We found her an easy lace shawl pattern and the needles for knitting it up. I got myself a yarn spinning kit, complete with drop spindle, (which I could afford thanks to all that savings) and a $0.99 skien of yarn that had not been snatched up yet from the bargain basket.
There was a table in the back of the store with cookies, cake and candy were we snagged some seats and I taught my friend to knit. She was not the first person I have taught knitting to, but she is my first dedicated pupil. Within short order she was working lace, reading charts and learning to adjust patterns.
I am lucky to find such a gifted student. One of the other store employees said I should teach a class for them. I have to admit being tempted by that idea.
While we were knitting, others were shopping and we got to see the record deal of the whole two day sale. One lady, bag stuffed with some very very nice yarns, scored over $600 worth of yarn for forty bucks.
Wow.
Admittedly all of us felt a little bad, as if we were taking advantage of the deal, but I don't think there is a single one who actually regrets our purchases.
And why should we? The employees were encouraged by the store owner to help us stuff our bags as much as we could. If nothing else, they have more room for new yarn and an amazing amount of word of mouth advertising for their store. Oh, and my friend lives close to that store, so she will be going there for her supplies.
Before we left, I told them they should do this sale again but with a couple of differences. I suggested smaller, large-envelope style bags and the sale be $60 or $80 for selected books, magazines and patterns. I do hope they will do this. My stash is set, but my library could use some padding out.
For now, I have my hands full photographing my new yarn and posting in my Ravelry stash.
I got a lot of yarn.
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